


blind date

by KestralWatcher



Category: Steel Empires - J. L. Gribble
Genre: Blind Date, Canon Character of Color, Canon Queer Character of Color, M/M, Missing Scene, background Asaron, background Victory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26030935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KestralWatcher/pseuds/KestralWatcher
Summary: Kane loved his home and loved his life, but he did not love that he had exhausted the local potential dating pool by the time he graduated high school. Jarimis University did attract students from the surrounding British and Roman colonies, but not that many. (And to be honest, he pitied the guys who came to Limani and then realized that all the members in their potential dating pool not only already knew each other, but had probably previously dated, slept together, or both.)A missing scene from the beginning ofSteel Victory.
Relationships: Kane Nalamas/OMC
Kudos: 2





	blind date

**Author's Note:**

> Since the writing bug bit me again with _The Old Guard_ , I wanted to play around with another canonically queer character.
> 
> No beta, we die like immortals.
> 
> See end notes for trigger warning.

Kane hated blind dates.

Limani might be a city, but it was a small one compared with the sprawling metropolises of New Angouleme to the north or Fort Caroline to the south. Kane loved his home and loved his life, but he did not love that he had exhausted the local potential dating pool by the time he graduated high school. Jarimis University did attract students from the surrounding British and Roman colonies, but not that many. (And to be honest, he pitied the guys who came to Limani and then realized that all the members in their potential dating pool not only already knew each other, but had probably previously dated, slept together, or both.)

The plus side to already knowing everyone meant that when someone new did show up, the potential dating pool was quick to take their measure and point them in the right direction. Usually, a casual introduction was orchestrated, at a party or on-campus event. But apparently, Duncan came from one of _those_ British families up north, the ones with money but not a drop of noble blood, and that wasn’t good enough.

So, Jared told Kane to be at Café Lizzette at eleven in the morning for brunch, because Jared was a dick who knew Kane hated blind dates, but Jared had also listened to Kane drunkenly complain last month that he hadn’t gotten laid in ages. Okay, three months.

Kane was early, of course. He lurked outside the restaurant entrance and fidgeted with his shirt cuff. The restaurant was new, which is why Jared had arranged for the date there, but Kane already wasn’t impressed. A sign in the window, a small placard maybe a foot square, read, “Humans welcome. Patronage discouraged from all others.”

A significant part of him ached to ditch the date and head home. Tell Toria what he had seen, and do something about the simmering anger that threatened to spill over. But Jared would never let him live that down, so he stayed put. Waited for the mysterious Duncan to make his appearance. Calmed his breathing. He would enjoy his date, gather information, and call Victory soon after sundown. The sign had to be new—he couldn’t imagine that news of it would not have reached the ears of the Master of the City before now.

The man who finally stopped in front of Kane wasn’t quite what he’d expected and yet entirely typical at the same time. Tall, broad in the shoulders, brown hair neatly clipped, a scattering of freckles across his face. Around Kane’s age, or maybe a bit older, but still in his early twenties. But he wore jeans tucked into leather ankle boots and an untucked, unbuttoned shirt layered over a t-shirt advertising some band unfamiliar to Kane. One of those fancy Brits then, who put on an air of studied informality even though those boots probably cost more than Kane’s rent.

The man thrust his hand forward. “You must be Kane. I’m Duncan Hardison. Jared’s told me all about you.”

Kane doubted that, but he returned the handshake. “Kane Nalamas. A pleasure to meet you, Duncan.”

“Didn’t mention how exotic you were,” Duncan said, adding a wink to the end of the phrase.

Another reason Kane hated blind dates. His darker skin tone was more common to the south, in Roman lands, though he didn’t necessarily stand out in Limani either. He kept his face locked onto a smile rather than let it slip into grimace territory and gestured to Café Lizzette’s entrance. “Shall we?”

He caught Duncan’s glance at the sign, but the other man showed no outward reaction as he pushed open the restaurant door. When Kane followed him in, a blue light flashed the moment he crossed the threshold. The ward shivered over his skin like an errant spark from a campfire, and Kane forced himself to keep moving rather than freeze in the entryway.

A middle-aged woman crewed the host station, and her eyes widened at the ward alert. She raised a hand before Duncan could speak, and Kane might have laughed at his affronted expression, but he already knew where this was going, and it wasn’t going to be funny at all.

Didn’t stop him from clenching his hands into fists, even if he kept them at his sides and forced his shoulders to stay loose.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said, with no hint of apology in her voice. “We have no open seating right now.”

Duncan surveyed the restaurant even as Kane kept his eyes on the hostess. He’d already clocked the multiple empty tables the moment he walked in, even with the distraction of the activated ward. As promised, Asaron’s training had finally become second nature.

“We have a res—”

Kane interrupted Duncan with, “It’s fine. There are other places to eat.” He snagged his date’s elbow and pulled him back out the door, ignoring the second blue flash that crawled over his skin.

“What the hell was that about?” Duncan asked once they had retreated down the block. He tugged his arm from Kane’s grip and then favored him with a very different sort of appraisal than when they first met mere minutes ago.

No sense in denying it. “I’m a mage,” Kane said. “Earth alignment.”

“Huh,” Duncan said. “Jared didn’t mention that.”

Of course he wouldn’t. Jared and Kane had known each other since elementary school. Kane being a mage was old news.

“You’re still human, though,” Duncan continued. “We should have demanded service.”

Any hint of attractiveness Kane might have felt toward the man flew out the window. “You’d have been happy to support such a bigoted establishment?”

“Well, it didn’t apply to us, did it?” Duncan asked. “Anyway, I’m hungry and can still hear a mimosa calling my name. You’re the local—any suggestions?”

He tried to tuck his arm into Kane’s, and though he was barely an inch shorter, he still managed to smile flirtatiously up through his eyelashes.

The guy had lovely eyes. A blueish mixture that might lean toward green in the right light. And Kane was on occasion enough of a walking cliché in that he had a thing for guys with green eyes.

Except…

“Just what did Jared tell you about me?” Kane asked. He attempted to ignore the feeling of the warm body cuddled up to this side.

Duncan offered a half shrug, but he did move half a step back as if he sensed Kane’s discomfort. “You’re another Jarimis University student, but you live off-campus with your best friend and aren’t taking a summer course, which is why we haven’t run into each yet. That you’re studying literature.” He paused, then made no attempt to hide the way his eyes swept down Kane’s body. “That you’re hot, which I whole-heartedly agree with.”

Kane tilted his head back as he allowed a bark of laughter to escape. When he looked back to Duncan, his brows had curled in slight hurt. “Sorry,” Kane said. “Laughing at Jared, not you. I appreciate the compliment. And I suppose that’s the point of a date, right, to get to know each other?”

“Right,” Duncan said. “Mimosa?”

“Absolutely.” Kane tugged Duncan back to his side and led him down the sidewalk. They walked at a comfortable shared pace around a corner and down a few blocks to a family-run bistro he and Toria often frequented. Counter service only here, but the casual atmosphere suited him better. Once he settled Duncan at an outdoor table for two, he ducked inside and placed their drink orders and snagged a menu for Duncan.

The mimosas arrived promptly, the owner’s daughter-in-law winking at Kane when she saw his unfamiliar companion. He rolled his eyes at her and knew he (or worse, Toria) was in for interrogation the next time he came back.

Duncan missed the exchange as he continued the skim the menu, then looked up to order. Before Kane could remind her that wasn’t how things worked, Leta waved him off. “Happy to take care of it. Your usual, Kane?”

“Thanks,” he said, as she collected the menu and ducked back inside.

Duncan tipped the edge of his mimosa glass to Kane’s, and they both drank. “Come here often, then?”

“Often enough,” Kane said. “Toria is essentially addicted to their lemon tarts.”

“That’s the roommate Jared mentioned?”

Kane hid a pause behind another sip of mimosa. Roommate. Best friend. Partner. Soulmate—but not in a romantic or sexual sense. Hard enough to explain his relationship with Toria to people who had grown up with them. Describing it to Duncan would be even more difficult. The only way out was through. “Yes,” he said. “But we’ve lived together since we were kids. Toria is a mage, too. We’re a bonded pair.” And this was generally where people assumed he was stepping out on his girlfriend, since most mage pairs were everything to each other, and more.

Duncan did not react for a beat, but then he set down his champagne flute and propped his elbows on the table to lean closer to Kane. “She knows you’re out with me this morning?”

Score one for British etiquette. “It’s not like that between us,” Kane said, wiggling his free hand back and forth. “We’re not—”

“I understand,” Duncan said.

Kane appreciated the rescue, and he allowed himself a smile at Duncan, which grew wider when the other man shifted in his seat and his foot landed next to Kane’s. He left it there, and Kane presses their ankles together. “Most people don’t get it.”

“I’m not claiming to,” Duncan said. “But I get the impression that Jared has known you a long time, and he certainly sang your praises. Doubt he’d set me up with a cheat.” He finished his champagne in a gulp. “You said you and Toria grew up together?”

“Yeah, her family took me in soon after we bonded.” Kane avoided the darker half of that story when his parents passed away within six months of each other, and the only reason darkness didn’t swallow him whole was because he could follow Toria’s light home. “Toria was adopted, too. Her mom, Victory—”

“Victory,” Duncan said. He sat up in his seat, and the warmth of his ankle withdrew under the table. “Not a very common name. Isn’t that Limani’s Master of the City?”

Kane stilled at Duncan’s sharp response, his stomach sinking at the drastic shift in his date’s tone. “She is. Victory is my foster mother.”

They stared at each other for a beat. Then another. Duncan’s eyes had grown cold and wary, even under the summer sun, and he moved first. He stood and dug a wallet out of his back pocket. “I don’t think this is going to work out,” he said, even as he dropped an uncounted handful of bills on the table. “My own family—you understand.”

Forcing himself rooted to his seat, Kane nodded once. Old British family, right. Not keen on vampires. No wonder Jared hadn’t told this guy much about Kane. “Yeah,” he said. “I understand.” He kept his hand curled around the stem of his glass, not bothering to wave as Duncan walked away.

He drained his drink, letting the alcohol curl through his chest. Duncan had left enough for their brunch and then some. For a second, Kane was tempted to head inside and cancel their food order but ask for the drinks to keep coming.

Instead, he canceled the food order and left the wad of cash as a tip for their trouble. He waved off Leta’s moue of distress on Kane’s behalf and promised that he and Toria would be back soon.

Hardly his first failed blind date, Kane mused as he walked home. However, the breaking point of his vampire foster mother was a first. Once it had been his mercenary training, but usually, his dates, and ultimately relationships, failed due to jealousy over Toria.

But Toria was non-negotiable. Either he’d eventually find someone who accepted that facet of Kane’s life, or—

He was only twenty. Had to be someone out there.

Magic surged against his skin as Kane climbed the stairs to their apartment, but unlike the ward at that café, this was a familiar caress of Toria’s power. He pushed open their front door as thunder rolled through the building, and he summoned his mage-sight in time to see sparkling purple shields fall from around Toria.

She held a beaker and a knife, her eyes wide—his crazy mad scientist. Kane’s date might have failed, but honestly? He’d rather be with Toria any day. Together, they were magic.

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Features a character asked to leave a restaurant due to being a minority. No derogatory language is used and there is no physical altercation; no police are involved.


End file.
